As a follow-up to my review of Birthright, I'm mostly going to focus on aspects of Fates specific to Conquest, check out the first one if you want to know some of my more general thoughts.
Though my memories of Conquest were pretty fond, I wasn't quite prepared for how this game shakes up the formula when it comes to design. I played through Birthright on Hard with little to no issue, but Conquest really challenged me even early on. The maps are designed in a much more deliberate manner, where encounters feel like they are meant to be approached in a certain way. Sometimes you'll be forced to interact with map specific mechanics in order to deal with these enemy formations, making some battles feel like a puzzle where you have to find the right approach in order to overcome the obstacle in front of you. It's this that makes Conquest a challenging yet satisfying experience. Make sure you're very familiar with the mechanics of Fates going in or else this will be a brutal experience.
I think with how much I enjoy the mechanics, I am very close to calling Conquest the best gameplay in the series. The only issues I really have with it is some of the enemy skills can be a bit much. I'm a bit split on this because I like how a lot of passive, enemy phase oriented tactics are discouraged thanks to the effects or debuffs these inflict, but towards the end of the game when everything is running around with these skills it's easy to get destroyed quickly, which leads to especially cautious play.
While I don't think anyone put off by the writing in Birthright will be won over by Conquest, I do think it's a bit of an improvement in terms of tone and theme. I really enjoy this idea of walking a darker path in order to achieve peace, where Birthright never really had you questioning if you had made the correct choice in such a way. This moral conflict extends to the Nohrian siblings who you side with in this route, and makes them a more interesting cast compared to their counterparts, especially Leo and Xander. Despite how obviously evil King Garon is, they still look up to their father and want to believe that there’s good in him, while none of the Hoshidan siblings question themselves in such a way. I think I also find their relationship with Corrin has more depth because of the fact that this is the family they've known all their life, and the significance of this shines through in their supports.
Overall, I think this game is pretty fantastic even if the difficulty can be a bit overwhelming at times. I think that with a Divine Pulse equivalent, this is exactly the type of design I would love to see the series explore in future titles. It's Fates at its most experimental and after visiting it again years later I'd say the result is truly a highly satisfying experience.
Though my memories of Conquest were pretty fond, I wasn't quite prepared for how this game shakes up the formula when it comes to design. I played through Birthright on Hard with little to no issue, but Conquest really challenged me even early on. The maps are designed in a much more deliberate manner, where encounters feel like they are meant to be approached in a certain way. Sometimes you'll be forced to interact with map specific mechanics in order to deal with these enemy formations, making some battles feel like a puzzle where you have to find the right approach in order to overcome the obstacle in front of you. It's this that makes Conquest a challenging yet satisfying experience. Make sure you're very familiar with the mechanics of Fates going in or else this will be a brutal experience.
I think with how much I enjoy the mechanics, I am very close to calling Conquest the best gameplay in the series. The only issues I really have with it is some of the enemy skills can be a bit much. I'm a bit split on this because I like how a lot of passive, enemy phase oriented tactics are discouraged thanks to the effects or debuffs these inflict, but towards the end of the game when everything is running around with these skills it's easy to get destroyed quickly, which leads to especially cautious play.
While I don't think anyone put off by the writing in Birthright will be won over by Conquest, I do think it's a bit of an improvement in terms of tone and theme. I really enjoy this idea of walking a darker path in order to achieve peace, where Birthright never really had you questioning if you had made the correct choice in such a way. This moral conflict extends to the Nohrian siblings who you side with in this route, and makes them a more interesting cast compared to their counterparts, especially Leo and Xander. Despite how obviously evil King Garon is, they still look up to their father and want to believe that there’s good in him, while none of the Hoshidan siblings question themselves in such a way. I think I also find their relationship with Corrin has more depth because of the fact that this is the family they've known all their life, and the significance of this shines through in their supports.
Overall, I think this game is pretty fantastic even if the difficulty can be a bit overwhelming at times. I think that with a Divine Pulse equivalent, this is exactly the type of design I would love to see the series explore in future titles. It's Fates at its most experimental and after visiting it again years later I'd say the result is truly a highly satisfying experience.